Raiden – Arcade

Good Morning and Happy Monday to you all – hope you all had a great Mothers Day yesterday!

This week’s review is:-

Raiden on the Arcade

There is a plot, a small one but there is one, so here it is:-
In the year 2090, Earth has suddenly become the target of deranged aliens known as the Cranassians. Following the invasion, the World Alliance Military builds a new cutting-edge weapon, the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter. Based on a captured alien craft, it is humanity’s only hope for survival.
So the game begins and you are on the back of some aircraft carrier, ready for action you blast into the sky. First thing I can say is, this reminds me of a classic game called Flying Shark but with massively updated graphics and shiny things to see and do. The game is a scrolling shoot em’ up affair, with progressive scrolling occurring through the whole game and budging you forwards as you go. Power ups play a big part of this game and they are found on the larger ships that appear on the screen and contain a weapon upgrade in the form of a flashing cube. The cube turns different colours as it weaves around the screen, enticing you to catch it, Red gives you an upgrade to the Vulcan cannon that you start with, blue will give you a laser upgrade, and there are heat seeking missiles and standard missiles as well. Your craft is equipped with a super bomb as well, which is pretty much a screen nuke but I prefer to have them stored up for boss encounters which occur at the end of each level. Each power up you obtain of the same colour will trigger an upgrade effect, so the laser for example will begin with individual bolts, then upgrade to steady stream and double streams, and visually this looks bad ass. The movement is a full 8 direction set up, and you are also able to nudge the scrolling over to the left and right by tipping to the edge of the playing field, which gives the impression of a much larger play zone than you can actually see. The one great feature of Raiden is that it is also….wait for it….2 PLAYER CO-OP! hurrah! yes the lovely developers have given us that much coveted co-op play for the game so you and a friend can go blasting the crap out of rogue aliens together, what fun! Each level has a nice selection of rewards to find, blowing up the sheds and holding buildings can reveal medals to collect, more smart bombs and more. Enemies come in all shapes and sizes here with ground tanks, air units and the massive bosses at the end of the levels, I was most impressed with those too! The game starts out with a nice false sense of security feel to it, but soon gives way to utter chaos on the screen and will put your reflexes to the test as you dodge and weave your way through hails of bullets, missiles and energy bolts, so much damn fun to be had here and with a continue option in place, you can go until your coins run out.
Graphics:- A good job done all round here, from the ship designs to the back drops and details. As you fly over green land, you can see sheep and cows below you and little enemy soldiers running around too, small things, but it all adds to the experience. The colours are nice and bold, with no clashing or clipping, all round a very good game to feast your eyes upon.

Sound:- A blasting sound track to pump you up throughout play that changes as bosses approach too, all adds to the atmosphere. The in game sounds are also very good and don’t overshadow the sound track in any way, in fact they seem to fit together in perfect sync.

Overall:- If you enjoy scrolling shooters, this game is right up your alley. A cracking game on it’s own, but even better when played with a friend. Fun and challenging at the same time this one is worth a look!